A solid-gold Rolex and prisoners as props
The Homeland Security secretary stages a photo op in a notorious mega-prison with men “stacked up like cordwood behind her.”
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Trump's meme state media
A new era of propaganda, built on meme accounts and friendly influencers, is supercharging the president's power to drown out dissent.
Elon the gamer
Why does the world's richest man care so much about beating nobodies in digital caves?
TikTok's age of chaos
“It was all a game. It was like a competition: What’s a creative way to suck up to Trump?”
Trump's tech enemies pay up
Silicon Valley executives are hoping million-dollar gifts and Mar-a-Lago dinners will mend bridges with the president-elect.
The influencer administration
“I said, ‘Who is the biggest of all the influencers?’” Trump said. “Sir, that’s the easiest question you’ve ever asked me. … You, sir.”
A busted bet on a Trump-win fortune
Retirees who bet their pension money on Trump Media's stock are getting a reality check.
"Shoot him dead and figure it out later"
Four years after "Stop the Steal" mobilized to subvert the 2020 election, the movement is more organized and has Elon Musk on its side.
How Elon Musk's X made Democrats disappear
Republicans are posting more, getting followed more and going viral more now that the world’s richest Trump supporter is running the show.
Kamala Harris' "feral 25-year-olds"
How the vice president's team of Gen-Z obsessives built her an internet fandom.
The age scanner "nightmare"
A popular new idea for safeguarding the web ranges from "'somewhat privacy violating' to 'authoritarian nightmare.'"
"Chosen to bring salvation"
Trump's true believers have cast him as a messiah who will save a troubled nation.
An angry Trump truths on
We analyzed years of Trump's online posts and found a changing persona: aggrieved, isolated and out for revenge.
When God says to invest in Trump
Trump Media's small-time investors are seeing its plunging stock price as a test of faith: "I know good and well it’s in Trump’s hands, and he’s got plans."
A kooky TikTok takeover plan
Steven Mnuchin's big idea: Rebuild the video app from scratch.
Truth Social's civil war
A legal battle royale involving Trump Media's co-founders and ex-financier could threaten one of the former president's financial lifelines.
Stories
America vs. TikTok
A chamber of Congress just used vague security concerns to approve the forced sale or ban of a speech platform used by 170 million nationwide.
Stories
Caught by push alert
A basic staple of modern smartphones becomes an FBI secret weapon.
Stories
X embraces the deepfake chaos
A lack of moderation and a flood of clout-chasing accounts has turned the platform into "4chan 2."
Stories
The $12 billion everything machine
A government scramble to build the tiny electrical components that form the bedrock of modern life.
Stories
Tracking Taylor Swift's jet
Her attorneys say the accounts are stalker tools. The student says the data is public and that "her team thinks they can control the world."
Stories
An undercover Trump trade
The men who made millions in insider trades related to a Truth Social deal - and the federal agents who tracked them down.
Stories
My bot, my self
A new wave of selfie-generating chatbots, made in our own images, end up revealing how much humanity they leave behind.
Stories
How the police get your prescription
America's largest pharmacy chains are handing over customers’ most intimate medical records in the store. And it's completely legal.
Stories
A Montana judge upends the TikTok ban
The state's first-in-the-nation law, Republicans' model for banning the video app, "violates the Constitution in more ways than one."
Stories
OpenAI, X and the perils of power
The secretive cults of personality that run Silicon Valley's biggest stars.
Stories
The viral bin Laden trend that wasn't
How a "small group of nobodies" on TikTok sparked the latest social media panic.
Stories
Inside a $10 million OnlyFans farm
In Florida, I saw firsthand how the new business of sex is changing the web.
Stories
What these violent videos do to us
The "golden age of brutal voyeurism" is bringing the horrors of war back home.
Stories
Welcome to MrBeast's neighborhood
In Greenville, N.C., the unlikely home of YouTube's biggest star, the neighbors are all part of the spectacle — whether they like it or not.
Stories
Watching the Gaza war on TikTok
The app's critics say the popularity of pro-Palestinian videos proves it's a brainwashing machine. The reality is more complicated.
Stories
The business of online influencers
"You’re basically working for the internet, and on the internet, you are very easily replaced."